Why Is Survival Important In Literature

What does it take to survive? You need to have the proper mindset, be resourceful, and be determined. Survival is a common theme in today’s literature, and although expressed in many varieties, they are similar in some way. Three books that I have chosen to compare are The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, and lastly, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

The Lottery takes place in a small village of approximately three hundred people. Everyone gathers around the town square, and the children all collect their stones and put them in one giant pile in the corner. We learn that Mr. Summers is the man in charge of all civic events; he arrives carrying a black wooden box, followed by Mr. Graves. Mr. Summer mixes up all the slips of paper in the box and then reads out the names, and calls up the family heads to draw a slip of paper. After everyone has drawn, they open up their papers, and quickly word gets around that a man named Bill Hutchinson has “got it”. Mr. Summers puts five more slips of paper in the box, for the Hutchinson family to draw from. Once everyone has opened their slips, it is revealed that Tessie has drawn the slip with the black dot on it. Mr. Summers then instructs everyone to hurry up, and the villagers begin to gather around Tessie, throwing stones at her

head, and eventually stoning her to death.
By reading the title of The Lottery, your first prediction is that the story would end in a reward of some sort, but the ending of the story shows us that is far from the true meaning. The author, Shirley Jackson, leaves the reader with a sharp and surprising twist at the end. Every year, a person in that village is chosen to die. After reading this short story I couldn’t help but compare it to The Hunger Games. The idea and the process are very similar.
In Suzanne Collins’ well-known book, every year the Capitol of Panem holds an event known as the Hunger Games.

Two tributes, a boy and a girl, are chosen from each of the twelve districts to be put in an arena and fight to death, or just try to survive. Katniss Everdeen displays an act of self-sacrifice when her younger sister is chosen for the games. She steps up and volunteers as tribute to represent district twelve. Along with Katniss, Peeta Mellark is also chosen. This section of the book reflects immensely on how the Lottery began. In both of the stories, you have no choice on if you will be drafted or not. Once you’re of age, it’s in the hands of

fate.
The next part of the Hunger Games, is profoundly related to a short story known as “The Most Dangerous Game”, by Richard Connell. In this story, a man known as Rainsford is washed ashore on an island, after falling off his yacht. He is greeted by a man named General Zaroff, who is a superior hunter. He has hunted every animal you could think of, and eventually got bored of always being able to win. So, he bought his own island and created his own type of hunting, something more exciting: humans. Zaroff explains “Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and, if needs be, taken by the strong.” (Connell 64)
Here, Zaroff is explaining that life is a survival of the fittest and you see this idea reflected in The Hunger Games as well. Zaroff supplies his “prey” with a supply of food and an excellent hunting knife, and sets them off into the wilderness of his own island. They are given three days, and if the General finds them within that time limit, they are dead.
These things are similar to The Hunger Games because in the beginning when all the tributes are formed in a ring around the arena, there is a pile of gear, supplies, tents, and weapons in the center. They must stay in the wilderness of the arena until there is only one survivor left. Katniss used her intelligence to knock out some of the other tributes in the game. She climbs up a tree and spends the night there. In the morning when she wakes she sees a tracker jacker nest (a genetically engineered wasp) hanging in the tree above a group of allies. She cuts the nest from the branch and it falls to the ground below where the group was sleeping. Within seconds they flee the scene with many stings covering their bodies, one girl gets an abundant amount of stings and dies, leaving behind her bow and arrows, which is good news for Katniss. Rainsford in The Most Dangerous Game also uses his intelligence to try and trap the general. He dug a pit, and put sharp stakes in the bottom sticking up. He then wove a cover of weeds and branches, and placed it over the pit. When his booby trap was complete, he hid and waited for the general to come along. After a few short minutes Rainsford heard a sharp scream of pain as his body hit the sharp stakes. Rainsford revealed himself and walked over to the pit where the general congratulated him for his good work.
Overall, these three stories are all related. The Lottery is similar to The Hunger Games by the way they are drafted, to basically die. The drawing is done at random and whoever is chosen has no way of getting out of it.